How was the Erie Canal filled with water?

Seneca and Cayuga lakes, lying at the heads of their respective stretches of the Cayuga and Seneca canal, are natural reservoirs which not only supply all the water this canal needs but also augment the supply of the Erie branch between its junction with the Cayuga and Seneca canal and Three River Point.

Where does the water go when they drain the Erie Canal?

Water is also drained through a "sluice gate" – a movable gate that lets water flow underneath it – located off of Market Street, near Lockport Locks and Erie Canal Cruises. The water flowing through the gate when it is open flows into Eighteenmile Creek and eventually ends up in Lake Ontario.

How was the Erie Canal powered?

They cleared the land by hand and animal power and blasted through rock with gunpowder. (Dynamite wasn't invented until the 1860s by Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel.) The original Erie Canal was just four feet deep and 40 feet wide, though it was considered a major engineering feat at the time of its completion in 1825.

What body of water was the Erie Canal made of?

New York Governor DeWitt Clinton pouring water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean to mark the completion of the Erie Canal.

How long did it take to dig the Erie Canal?

The canal was completed in only 8 years at a cost of $7,000,000. When completed on October 26, 1825, DeWitt Clinton (by then Governor of New York) boarded a vessel, the Seneca Chief, in Buffalo and headed to New York City.

How a Canal Lock works

How deep is the Erie Canal 2021?

From Waterford, NY to Three Rivers Junction, project channel depths are 14 feet with 13 feet over the lock sills. Three Rivers Junction to Tonawanda, NY you have 12 feet in the channel and over the lock sills.

How big of a boat can go down the Erie Canal?

The largest vessels that can make the entire journey must be under 300 feet long, 43.5 feet wide, 9' draft, and a maximum 15' 6" height above the water.

How long would the Erie Canal Run?

Built between 1817 and 1825, the original Erie Canal traversed 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo. It was the longest artificial waterway and the greatest public works project in North America.

What tools were used to dig canals?

The work was crude and hard with most men digging the four-foot-deep and forty-foot-wide ditch with only shovels and pickaxes. Until the advent of “Brainard's barrow,” known today as a wheelbarrow, dirt was hauled away on small rectangular carts that were awkward and inefficient.

Why was the Erie Canal called Clinton's Ditch?

On July 4, 1817, construction began in Rome, NY, on the Erie Canal. A mere four-feet-deep and forty-feet-wide, the waterway was nicknamed "Clinton's Big Ditch" after Governor DeWitt Clinton, who pursued the goal of connecting Buffalo's Lake Erie with the Hudson River without any support from the federal government.

Is the Erie Canal still in service?

Nearly 200 years old and still going strong.

Can you anchor in the Erie Canal?

You need to take your mast down to allow for the clearance in the canal (http://www.canals.ny.gov/about/about.html#heights) Basically 20 feet clearance for our Route from Oswego to the Hudson, or 15.5 feet if you come the Erie Canal all the way from Tonawanda (Buffalo).

How much were workers paid a day on the Erie Canal?

Wages were 50 cents to a dollar a day and the work in those first years was painfully slow. From 1818 to 1819, around three thousand men and 700 horses labored every day to dig the section of the Erie Canal from Utica to the Seneca River.

Can you kayak the Erie Canal?

The NYS Canal System consists of more than 524-miles of interconnected canals, lakes, and rivers, including the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca Canals. You can paddle all of it. Paddlers going from end to end of the Erie Canal typically plan 2.5 to 3 weeks to make the 338 mile journey.

What kind of fish are in the Erie Canal?

Freshwater fish species in the Erie Canal include largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, pickerel, walleye, pike, catfish, carp, yellow perch, and sunfish.

Is the Erie Canal man made?

The Erie Canal is a manmade waterway that joins the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. Construction of the original canal started on July 4, 1817, in Rome, New York, and was completed on October 26, 1825.

Who is the person behind the Erie Canal?

In 1816, as a sitting Canal Commissioner, DeWitt Clinton submitted a formal petition to a joint committee of the New York State Senate and Assembly to create a canal system between the Hudson River and Lake Erie.

How many lives were lost in the Erie Canal?

The construction process of the Erie Canal had over 50,000 workers, and it recorded over 1,000 deaths. The majority of these deaths were attributed to frequent canal collapses, drowning, careless use of gunpowder and diseases from the swampy place.

What did Thomas Jefferson say about the Erie Canal?

Thomas Jefferson is frequently quoted as saying that the proposed plan for the Erie Canal was "little short of madness." Jefferson's comment is essentially hearsay reported by another party; however, rather unusually, Jefferson himself later confirmed that he had "no doubt" that his comments as related secondhand were ...

Are you allowed to swim in the canal?

Many canals are not suitable for swimming due to water quality issues and generally swimming is not formally permitted. Note that many larger navigable rivers may look like canals in places, but are managed rivers with weirs, locks and parallel 'cuts' to shortcut meaders, called river 'navigations'.

Why was the Erie Canal closed?

The reason for so many? They couldn't go anywhere, said Stopper, a Lyons canal greeter, enthusiast and historian. Excessive rain, including Saturday's nearly statewide deluge, forced the NYS Canal Corp. to close the Erie Canal from Baldwinsville, Onondaga County, to Rochester because of dangerously high water levels.